Sweet Treat
by YappiChick
Summary: Elizabeth smiled broadly. “I’d like to welcome you all to the first annual Atlantis Gingerbread Man Decorating Competition!” John/Teyla friendship, season 3


Warnings: Not so much a warning as a notice that this takes place during the first half of season three.  
Comments: This was written for Hope for the SGA Beya Secret Santa. Just a little late in posting it here…LOL

* * *

It hadn't been this tense in the mess hall since Theresa, the head chef on Atlantis, made her famous Chicken Pot Pie and there was only enough servings for half of the expedition. The entire crew, from Canadian geniuses to rookie Privates, were crammed in the room, eying each other carefully.

Elizabeth pushed her way to the front, standing on the small platform John and several others helped build for this occasion. The room fell completely silent when Elizabeth reached the center.

"Good afternoon," she greeted warmly. "You all know why we are here." She scanned the crowd who were all attentively listening to her. "Thanks to Colonel Caldwell and the crew of the Daedalus, we have the supplies we need for today." She smiled broadly. "I'd like to welcome you all to the first annual Atlantis Gingerbread Man Decorating Competition!"

Cheers erupted from the crowd. After the past few months, all of the expedition were eager to take a break from the seemingly never-ending perils that happened on base.

"The rules are simple," Elizabeth continued. "Each person needs to make a gingerbread person of someone else in the expedition. You can make as many people as you want, but only one can be submitted for judging. When you are finished with your person, bring it to the judging table. After all the entries have been submitted, we will have a vote. The winner will get meal choices for a week."

A few excited shouts echoed throughout the mess hall.

"You have thirty minutes," Elizabeth said, looking at her watch. "And the time starts…now!"

The group spread out as they approached the supply table, each grabbing the proper sweet treats to make their perfect gingerbread creation.

John, for his part, made his way over to the closest table and grabbed a gingerbread girl cookie, some icing and several toppings before making his way back to his decorating station. Ever since Elizabeth announced the contest, John knew exactly who he was going to make.

Teyla.

For the past several days, he had been considering his options. Would black licorice make for better hair or would hand piped lines of chocolate icing? Should she be in Athosian clothes or her off-world gear? Finally, he came up with a game plan and now, as he put down all of his supplies, he was confident that GingerTeyla would be awesome.

He put the cookie in the middle of the table and grabbed some icing and some licorice. He knew the color wasn't quite right, but he didn't want to spend all of the competition piping hair for his cookie. Carefully, as if doing his own hair, he positioned each strand of licorice perfectly.

Next he turned to her face, slowly piping out eyes, mouth and a cute nose. Even GingerTeyla was adorable.

After a couple of minutes, he pulled back, assessing his work. Not bad, he thought.

He turned his attention to her clothes. John decided to go with the Athosian clothing route; he loved having an excuse to think about Teyla in her distracting, belly-showing outfits.

He grabbed a fruit roll-up and carefully started trimming away the extra sticky sheet of fruit. He placed it on the top half of her body. Smiling, he grabbed a couple of sprinkles and added them to her top. It might have been a little more eccentric then her normal Athosian clothes, he conceded, but this was for the Christmas season, after all.

Quickly, he used the same technique to make a long skirt for GingerTeyla. He cut high slits in them, reminding him of the one she would wear when they would spar together.

Images of her, gliding across the gym floor, sounding kicking his butt flooded his mind. Yeah, John thought, I really need to go back to the gym.

Turning his attention back to his cookie, he frowned slightly. He put a small dot in the middle of the cookie for her belly button, It looked good, but it didn't look perfect.

John glanced at his watch; he only had three minutes left. He looked at the decoration supply table wondering what, exactly, could make this cookie say "I am Teyla Emmagan."

Finally, he saw his inspiration.

He walked over to the table a grabbed two candy cane sticks before returning back to his own table. John put a glob of royal icing on each hand and carefully placed the candy cane sticks on each one. Though they weren't the right color, there was no doubting they were banto sticks and the person holding them was Teyla.

John stepped back, admiring his work.

Meanwhile, Teyla was at her own station, putting the finishing touches on her cookie.

Once John had taken the time to explain the point of the gingerbread man decorating contest, Teyla had no question in her mind that she would make John for the competition. He was the person she was the most familiar with in the expedition and she thought of his face more often than she would like to admit.

Using the supplies provided proved to be a bit of a challenge. The icing was a bit more difficult than she expected, but once she got the feel of the piping bag, she started the painstaking process of making the Colonel's hair.

She knew John spent no less than twenty minutes styling his hair each morning; more than one mission had been delayed because the hair gel hadn't set in his hair completely. Teyla was committed to making sure his hair was perfect.

She used nearly half the time, but when she was done, she was satisfied. That cookie shared the hair of perfection with John Sheppard.

She turned her attention to his face, doing her best to capture him. Teyla chose to go with a decidedly John look; the look of "oh crap" when they were in trouble off world. She finished with little "o" for his mouth with a small smile.

Quickly, she piped out his clothes: his Atlantis jacket and matching pants. When she got to his shoes, she gave him his military style boots, but made sure that they were untied, like they usually were.

Teyla took a step back, looking at the cookie. Icing was certainly a strange medium to work with, but she was mostly satisfied with the work she had done.

Grabbing the cookie, she made her way to the judging table. Now, there was nothing to do but wait.

************

Judging went quickly with the top prize going to Radek and his rendition of Rodney. He made a frazzled looking gingerbread man holding a "tablet" with the words "Self-Destruct Eminent" on it. Close behind in second place was Major Lorne's rendition of Carson Beckett wearing a kilt, which provided more than a few laughs.

John walked up to Teyla who was still looking at the large assortment of gingerbread men. "So, what did you think of your first cookie decorating contest?" he asked.

"It was fun," she said, smiling. "I did not expect for people to be so interested in such a event though."

John grinned back. "Are you kidding me? This is nothing. Some people drive hours to go to gingerbread house competitions back on Earth."

"Which one is yours?" she asked, nodding towards the village of gingerbread people.

He scanned the tables until he found his GingerTeyla. "This one," he said, a little awkwardly. He wondered what she would think of him making a gingerbread woman of her.

To his relief, she smiled at him. "I was wondering who would come up with the idea of using candy canes as banto rods," she replied, amused.

"So, which one is yours?" he asked.

She pointed to the one right next to his. "I made that one."

John wondered what were the odds that out of all the cookies on Atlantis, his and Teyla's ended up next to each other. He didn't mind at all; in fact, it seemed fitting that the two of them were placed side by side.

He looked at her. "I should have figured. Only you would have spent so much time on my hair," he teased.

"I figured if you go through the process daily, I surely do it for one cookie," she joked back.

John huffed. "Hey! You know what happens if I don't do my hair."

Teyla giggled. "I believe the term Rodney used was 'bed head'."

"Yeah well he should know. The man has had a chronic case of it for the past three years," John grumbled playfully. He looked at Teyla. "Wanna go to the conference room? I heard a Radek set up a projection screen so they could play 'It's a Wonderful Life'."

Teyla nodded. "I heard Elizabeth talking about the movie. It sounds…interesting. Though I am not sure why a bell is important to an angel receiving his wings."

"Come on," he said, turning towards the door. "I'll show you." As the two of them were walking out, John stopped. "Hold on."

He quickly walked back to the table where their two cookies were. With a small nudge, he pushed the cookies together until the hands were touching.

There, he thought, that is perfect.


End file.
